What symphony can you not live without?

[suffolkcoastal]

Thats an easy question: Vaughan Williams 5th my favourite piece of all. Mind you I couldn't be without any of his symphonies really.

[Christo]

Thats an easy question: Vaughan Williams 5th my favourite piece of all. Mind you I couldn't be without any of his symphonies really.

My words too.

[JimL]

These have been interesting reads for me. Although I accept at face value those who offer a dozen or more in the "only" category, those who have gotten their response down to a single symphony suggest an implicit story - if untold - in their choices. Some of the untold stories leave me baffled. Bizet? Berwald?

For me I would have to choose Rachmaninov 3, in Ormandy's mono Columbia incarnation.

By 1955 - I was fourteen - I had come to know Brahms 2 and 4, the Schubert "Unfinished," Dvorak 9 - numbered 5 in those days, the Franck and Tchaikovsky 6.

One golden October day I bought myself a copy having just heard in a generic "music appreciation" class the same recording. I wanted my own, to hear it again. A thanks to long-gone Curtis York for playing it that afternoon.

It was unlike anything else I had experienced. It was if anything was possible, as if there were no limits to the expressive possibilities of sound, the opening of some sort of spiritual doorway, through which I passed in those days. A year later I was in pursuit of Scriabin, Mahler, Nielsen and Hanson, for example. And five-some decades later, here I am: Boleslaw Woytowicz and Oboukhov..

But the Rachmaninov has remained. The bare, tightly held - within a minor third! opening has latent within it all that of those days, and all that of the many days since, almost a wise, subtle, comforting friend.

As I said, with a story; and there you have mine - as well as I can put what is not told in words in words.

Best to all.

That 2nd subject in the first movement is one of the greatest tunes...EVER!

[JollyRoger]

Shostakovitch 10

[JollyRoger]

Thats an easy question: Vaughan Williams 5th my favourite piece of all. Mind you I couldn't be without any of his symphonies really.

The 4 and 5 are indeed beautiful but IMHO,the others are a mixed bag..
Sanctas Civitas is another work I could not live without..

[Ilja]

I couldn't have put what I feel about the close of Mahler's 2nd any better than Dundonnell has in his second paragraph. For all that I love so many unsungs and have flown the flag of Raff for forty years, if I could have only one piece of music to last me for the rest of my life it would be the finale of the Resurrection Symphony. I've heard it in concert five or six times and have cried at every one.

For me, the thing about the Mahler 2nd that I can also enjoy it fully when it's performed by B-category musicians - and there are not a lot of pieces that can be said of.

For me: Tchaikovsky's Fifth symphony, played by the Leningraders under Mravinsky. First classical record I owned, a present from my grandparents - and the window to a past life every time I play it.

[Biarent]

Sung: Beethoven 8, Schumann 2, Mendelssohn 3, Brahms 3, Bruckner 6, Mahler 6, Taneyev 4, Parry 5, Vaughan Williams 2, Elgar 1, Rachmaninoff 3, and Sibelius 7.
           
Unsung: Staehle, Berlioz Harold in Italy, Rufinatscha 6, Franck, Biarent, d'Indy 2, Rangstrom 3, Magnard 4, Madetoja 1, Tchaikovsky Manfred, Lindblad 2, Lange-Muller 1, Atterberg 3, and Gaubert.

[Alan Howe]

By "Stahl" do you mean Staehle?

[eschiss1]

Unless either Richard Stahl (1858-99) or Ernst Stahl (dates not known for certain- fl.1896?), or Berlin publisher Albert Stahl, was a symphonist?... Dutch Wikipedia article on Richard Stahl mentions musicals, marches, etc. but no symphonies.

[FBerwald]

Obviously Berwald No. 3 .... although lately I have started having a soft spot for Ries No. 5

[chill319]

Like everyone else, I want to make a list.

But if I had only two hours to live and wanted to go out on a high note, I'd ask to hear the final Furtwängler recording of Beethoven 9 OR a favorite recording of Bruckner 9 (currently Rattle).

If the selection were restricted to an unsung composer, my first thought would be either Draeseke 3 or Berger 2.

[anssik]

Kurt Atterberg's 2nd; I'm not absolutely sure that I could not live without it, but I prefer not to.

[Alan Howe]

Just a quick note to posters: it would greatly improve the quality of this thread if friends were to refrain from making more lists and instead make one suggestion and tell us their reasons. Lists are of marginal interest (although, of course, they are easy to compile); it is fascinating, though, to read why somebody likes a particular work. Of course, then some thinking has to be done...

[Ryan]

Well, he called it a "symphony," so Bax's Spring Fire?  It was the very first classical recording that ever made me fall in love with music AND thus the first CD I ever bought, so it holds a special place in my heart.  Without a doubt, it was Handley's way with "In the Forest Before Dawn" that led to the circa 11000 pieces in my collection now, 24 years later.  (I don't think that's too bad for a Yankee living 50 miles from the nearest decent orchestra! lol) 

I have the Elder with the Halle, btw.  It's got better recorded sound than the old Chandos, to be sure--but it seems oddly flat against Handley's melancholy magic...

PS--I imagine Bax is "sung" to y'all over there.  Over here, no one knows who he is

PPS--I'm glad I found your site.  Very interesting reading (and listening) indeed!

[Mark Thomas]

Welcome, Ryan.